Clothes drier

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to a drum-type clothes drier in which the wet clothes put into a rotating drum are stirred and dried in a hot blast supplied thereinto. The rotating drum is provided with a projection on the inner surface thereof for stirring the clothes put therein to accelerate the drying.

United States Patent Korekawa 1 Feb. 29, 1972 [54] CLOTHES DRIER [72]Inventor: Takashi Korekawa, Osaka, Japan [56] Reerences Cited 73Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., 1,111., UNITED STATESPATENTS Osaka. Japan 3,197,885 8/1965 Smith "34/133 X 1,655,514 1/1928Seifert..... [22] 2,827,276 3/1958 Racheter ..34/133 x [21] Appl. No.:60,508

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 0 Foreign Application Priority Data234,642 10/1959 Australia ..34/l33 Aug. 1 l, 1969 Japan ..44/6494lPrimary ExaminerCarroll B. Dority, J1. Aug. 11, 1969 Anomey--Stevens,Davis, Miller & Mosher Aug. 11, 1969 Aug. 11, 1969 [57] ABSTRACT g HThis invention relates to a drum-type clothes drier in which the wetclothes put into a rotating drum are stirred and dried Aug. l1, Japan ina hot blast pp thereinto' The rotating drum is p vidcd with a projectionon the inner surface thereof for stirring [52] US. Cl ..34/ 133, 34/134the clothes put therein to accelerate the drying [51] Int. Cl ..F26b11/02 [58] Field of Search ....34/133, 134 2 Claims, 8 Drawing FiguresPatented Feb. 29, 1972 3,645,010

3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR BY 3 y a ATTORNEY! Patented Feb. 29, 19723,645,010

3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Feb. 29, 1972 3,645,010

3 Sheets-$heet 5 0 F/G. a

CLOTHES DRIER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION Thepresent invention relates to a clothes drier, and more particularly to aclothes drier for uniformly and quickly drying the wet clothes in adrum.

In accordance with the present invention there is provided a clothesdrier comprising a drier housing having a door on the front facethereof, a rotary drum rotatably disposed in the housing for stirringthe clothes put thereinto by the rotation thereof, said rotary drumhaving a front wall with an opening at the center thereof and a rearwall, both said walls having a number of airholes for guiding hot blastinto and out of the drum, said drum further having protruded portionsfor stirring the clothes therein, a heater disposed adjacent to saidfront wall of the drum, and a fan disposed adjacent to said rear wall ofthe drum, said protruded portions having a hollow space therein andbeing provided with a number of small holes for introducing hot blastinto the drum therethrough, respectively.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART In the conventional clothes drier of theabove-described type, the clothes containing much water are brought upfrom the lowest position to the highest position in the drum by therotation of the drum. The clothes brought up to the portion adjacent tothe highest position in the drum are dropped down by gravity and on theway of dropping the wet clothes are exposed to the hot blast and thedrying thereof is accelerated. As the drying operation proceeds, theclothes become lighter and it happens that the clothes are caught to theinner surface of the drum while rotation of the drum. Since hot air isnot supplied where wet clothes are caught, which results in a decreaseof an efficiency of drying effect. In order to overcome theabove-described defect, a drum-type drier has been provided in which thedrum is slowly rotated to reduce the centrifugal force so that theclothes may easily drop down from the portion adjacent to the highestportion of the drum. But such a type of the drier has suffered from thedefect that the number of times of dropping of the clothes is reducedand, accordingly, the number of times of being supplied with the hotblast is reduced, which results in elongation in the drying time.Another disadvantage inherent in the use of conventional types of theclothes drier is that the wet clothes in the drum have not been drieduniformly. While the wet clothes in the vicinity of the hot blast intakeof the drum have been quickly dried, the wet clothes apart from theintake of the hot blast have been slowly dried. Consequently, theclothes in the vicinity of the intake have become liable to be damagedwhen all the clothes in the drum have been completely dried up. Sincethe wet clothes in the vicinity of the hot blast intake have been heatedto such a high temperature, it has been impossible to dry the clothes ofsynthetic fiber or it has taken so long time to dry the wet clothes bythe drier of the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the clothes drier of thepresent invention, the drying performance does not start from only thevicinity of the front wall of the drum as in the prior art, but spreadsequally all through the drum. That is, since the hot blast intakes areprovided not only on the front wall of the drum but also on theperipheral wall thereof, the wet clothes are dried effectively whereverthe wet clothes are in the drum.

Therefore, the wet clothes in the drum are uniformly dried and the timetaken for drying all the clothes in the drum is shortened. Besides,there is no fear of damaging the clothes fixed on the front wall of thedrum due to excessive drying. Further, the defect of the prior art drierthat the wet synthetic fiber clothes cannot be dried on an account ofthe partial excessive heat is completely eliminated by the presentinvention. Thus, the performance of the drier is remarkably improved bythe present invention.

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide aclothes drier in which protruded portions are provided on the inner wallof the drum for stirring the wet clothes put therein and for uniformlydrying the wet clothes in the hot blast introduced into the drum throughthe holes on the front wall and the protruded portions of the drum.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a clothes drierwhich shortens the time for drying the wet clothes.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a clothesdrier having improved projections in the drum thereof for acceleratingthe drying efiect.

Other object and a fuller understanding of the present invention will behad by referring to the following detailed description of preferredembodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TI-IE DRAWINGS Some preferred embodiments of thepresent invention will be described by reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side sectional elevational view of the clothes drier inaccordance with the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a detailed sectional view of the upper portion of the drumemployed in the drier in accordance with the present invention,

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary front view showing a part of the front portionof the drum in the drier of the present invention,

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary front view showing a part of the front portionof the drum in the drier in accordance with another embodiment of thepresent invention,

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a member incorporated into the drum ofthe drier in accordance with the embodiment shown in FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary front view showing a part of the front portionof the drum in the drier in accordance with still another embodiment ofthe present invention in which an auxiliary protruded portion isprovided,

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a member incorporated into the drum ofthe drier in accordance with a further embodiment of the presentinvention, and

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary sectional view of the upper portion of the drumin accordance with a still further embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the drawing,the reference numeral 1 indicates an outer frame of the drum-type drierwith a front plate 2 fixed to the front end thereof. The front plate 2is provided with a throw-in opening 3 defined by a flange 4. In front ofthe opening 3 is provided a door 5 which is opened when the clothes areto be thrown into and taken out of the drum l0 and closed when the drieris to be operated. The outer frame 1 is provided at the back end thereofwith a backplate 6. The backplate 6 is provided with a fan casing 7 atthe central portion thereof on the inner surface. The fan casing 7 iscommunicated to the outer air through a duct 9 and an exhaust port 8 atthe end of the duct 9. The drum 10 is rotatably held by the flange 4 andthe fan casing 7 at the front and back side of the drum 10. Thus, thedrum 10 is rotatably supported in the frame I. A number of small holes13 are provided on a projected portion 12 of a front wall 11 of the drum10. A fan 15 is rotatably mounted to a backwall 14 of the drum 10. Bythis fan 15, the warm or hot air outside the drum 10 is introduced intothe drum 10 through the small holes 13 provided on the front wall 11thereof and through several small holes 25 provided on protrudedportions 21 on the periphery of the drum. The warm air introduced intothe drum 10 is discharged out of the exhaust port 8 through the duct (9)by way of a filter 16 provided on the backwall 14 of the drum and thesmall holes 18 provided on the projected portion 17 of the backwall 14of the drum 10. A heater 19 is mounted on the inner surface of the frontplate 2 through an insulating member 20 for raising the temperature ofthe air introduced into the drum 10. The drum and the fan are rotated bya motor 24 through belts 22 and 23. The belt 23 runs on a pulley 32mounted to the main shaft 31 of the motor 24 located under the drum 10and a pulley 30 mounted to the main shaft 29 of the fan 15 so as totransmit the rotation of the motor 24 to the fan 15. The belt 22 forrotating the drum 10 runs on a pulley 33 mounted to the main shaft 31 ofthe motor 24 and the drum periphery. The belt 22 may be directly engagedwith the drum periphery or may be engaged with a belt receiving meanshaving a belt guiding groove (not shown) made of a proper heatinsulating material fixed on the drum periphery. It will be understoodthat the fan 15 is rotated at a high speed and the drum 10 is rotated ata prescribed comparatively low speed both by the motor 24.

On the inner surface of the peripheral portion of the drum 10 areprovided several projected portions 21 extending in the axial directionfor stirring the clothes in the drum. Preferably, three or fourprojected portions 21 are provided at equal intervals on the innerperiphery of the drum. The clothes thrown into the drum through thethrow-in opening 3 of the drum are brought up to the top of the drum bythe projected portions 21 as the drum rotates. The projected portions 21are made hollow and provided with a number of small holes 25. The frontwall 11 of the drum 10 is provided with a hole 26 at the portionconnected with the hollow portion of the projected portions 21 so thatthe hot air outside the drum may be introduced into the drum through thehole 26 and the small holes 25.

Now referring to FIGS. 4 and 5 showing another embodiment of the drierof the invention in which the projected portions 21 are modified. Thewidth (a) of the projected portion 21 at the front side thereof is smalland the width (a') of the projected portion at the rear side thereof ismade larger than the said width (0). As clearly shown in FIG. 4, thediameter of the drum 10 is partially made smaller which results inreduction in the centrifugal force made by the rotation of the drum.Owing to the reduction in centrifugal force, the clothes brought up tothe top of the drum are made liable to drop down. Thus, the stirringoperation and accordingly the drying operation of the drum areeffectively improved.

Another embodiment of the drum employing some auxiliary projectedportions 28 is shown in FIG. 6. Between the adjacent projected portionsare provided some auxiliary projected portions 28 of smaller height. Theauxiliary projected portions 28 serve to reduce the diameter of thedrum. Therefore, the drum as shown in FIG. 6 also reduces thecentrifugal force and accelerates the stirring operation.

As best shown in FIG. 2 the projected portion 21 is provided with largernumber of small holes 25 at the rear portion thereof. This is forproviding a uniform drying effect in the drum. The clothes in the drumapart from the hot blast introducing small holes 13 on the front wallare exposed to the hot blast introduced through the small holes 25 onthe projected portions 21.

Another modification of the projected portion 21 is shown in FIG. 7.This modification of the projected portion is an improvement of theembodiment shown in FIG. 5. The projected portion 21 comprises anelongated member 21a having U- shaped section and width (a) and alaterally extending member 21b fixed to the side of the elongated member21a. The laterally extending member 21b has a width (b) and length (a').The elongated member 21a and the laterally extending member 21b arecompletely partitioned by the compartment 210. The elongated member 210is provided with a number of small holes 25. The front wall 1 1 of thedrum 10 is provided with a hole 26 at the portion connected with theelongated member 21a. Thus, the hot air outside the drum 10 isintroduced into the drum through the hole 26 and the small holes 25provided on the elongated member 21a as well as through the small holes13 provided on the front wall 11 of the drum. The hot air introducedinto the drum through the hollow elongated member 21a is never dispersedinto the space defined by the laterally extending member 21b and thedrum periphery. Since an excessive diffusion of heat is prevented, theclothes within the drum are evenly and effectively dried under thesufficient hot air having no reduction of its temperature. As theforegoing embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the width of the projected portion21 is made larger in the rear side thereof than that in the front side.

The clothes drier having a drum provided with the projected portion asdescribed above has such advantages as follows. Since the drum diameteris reduced by the laterally extending member 21b, the centrifugal forcemade by the rotation of the drum is reduced so that the clothes broughtup to the top of the drum may be liable to drop down in the drum. Whenthe clothes drop down in the drum, the clothes get loose and the areareceiving the hot blast increases resulting in acceleration in thedrying operation. At the same time, the clothes caught to the positionin the drum where the centrifugal force is not reduced, that is, theclothes caught not on the laterally extending member 21b but on theperiphery of the drum are subject to the hot blast introduced into thedrum through the small holes 25. And by the hot blast locally introducedinto the drum, the stirring operation is given variety which results inacceleration in drying performance.

The locally introduced hot blast can be provided also in the case ofdisposing the auxiliary projected portions on the inner periphery of thedrum. For instance, by arranging the projections having small holes andthe projections without small holes alternately on the inner peripheryof the drum, the stirring operation is given the variety to acceleratethe drying performance.

In FIG. 8, a still further modification of the auxiliary projections isshown. The length of the auxiliary projections 27 is made smaller thanthat of the other main protruded portions 21. And the shorter auxiliaryprojections 27 are located adjacent to the backwall 14 of the drum. Inthe conventional drier, the wet clothes nearer to the backwall have beenordinally dried slower than the clothes nearer to the front wall of thedrum by the hot blast introduced into the drum through the small holes13 on the front wall 11. However, by locating the shorter projectionsadjacent to the backwall of the drum all the wet clothes in the drum aremade liable to drop down in the drum to be stirred effectively andresults in a uniform drying performance.

While several embodiments of the present invention have been describedin the foregoing specification and illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, it will be apparent that various modifications and changes inthe form may be made by those skilled in the art without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A clothes drier comprising a drier housing having a door on the frontface thereof, a rotary drum rotatably disposed in the housing forstirring the clothes therein by the rotation thereof, said rotary drumhaving a front wall with an opening at the center thereof and a rearwall, both said walls having a number of airholes for guiding hot blastinto and out of the drum, at least one protruded portion provided on theinner peripheral portion of said drum for stirring the clothes in saiddrum, a heater disposed outside said front wall of the drum, and a fandisposed outside said rear wall of the drum, said protruded portionhaving a hollow space therein and being provided with a number of smallholes for introducing hot blast into the drum therethrough, wherein saidprotruded portion defines a hot blast passage therein and is partiallyprovided with a number of small holes only in the rear side thereof.

2. A clothes drier comprising a drier housing having a door on the frontface thereof, a rotary drum rotatably disposed in the housing forstirring the clothes therein by the rotation thereof, said rotary drumhaving a front wall with an opening at the center thereof and a rearwall, both said walls having a number of airholes for guiding hot blastinto and out of the blast into the drum therethrough wherein saidprotruded portion has partially different width and is comparted by acompartment into a portion having a smaller width with small holes and aportion having a larger width without small holes.

1. A clothes drier comprising a drier housing having a door on the frontface thereof, a rotary drum rotatably disposed in the housing forstirring the clothes therein by the rotation thereof, said rotary drumhaving a front wall with an opening at the center thereof and a rearwall, both said walls having a number of airholes for guiding hot blastinto and out of the drum, at least one protruded portion provided on theinner peripheral portion of said drum for stirring the clothes in saiddrum, a heater disposed outside said front wall of the drum, and a fandisposed outside said rear wall of the drum, said protruded portionhaving a hollow space therein and being provided with a number of smallholes for introducing hot blast into the drum therethrough, wherein saidprotruded portion defines a hot blast passage therein and is partiallyprovided with a number of small holes only in the rear side thereof. 2.A clothes drier comprising a drier housing having a door on the frontface thereof, a rotary drum rotatably disposed in the housing forstirring the clothes therein by the rotation thereof, said rotary drumhaving a front wall with an opening at the center thereof and a rearwall, both said walls having a number of airholes for guiding hot blastinto and out of the drum, at least one protruded portion provided on theinner peripheral portion of said drum for stirring the clothes in saiddrum, a heater disposed outside said front wall of the drum, and a fandisposed outside said rear wall of the drum, and said protruded portionhaving a hollow space therein and being provided with a number of smallholes for introducing hot blast into the drum therethrough wherein saidprotruded portion has partially different width and is comparted by acompartment into a portion having a smaller width with small holes and aportion having a larger width without small holes.